STAND. COM. REP. NO. 99

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1326

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Water, Land, and Housing and Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 1326 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO COSTS OF RELOCATION AND UNDERGROUNDING OF UTILITY FACILITIES,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to allow cost sharing in a state or county project for the relocation, undergrounding, or installation of new utility facilities.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Transportation and a representative of the Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc.

 

     Your Committees find that under section 103D-309, Hawaii Revised Statutes, cost sharing applies only to relocation of facilities pursuant to section 264-33, Hawaii Revised Statutes.  Your Committees further find that this measure allows cost sharing for work in addition to the relocation of facilities, such as undergrounding and installation of new facilities, which benefits both the public and state agencies by allowing projects to be advertised and awarded without waiting for the deposit of utility monies.  Your Committees also find that the longer advertising and award periods will result in more efficient work on the project. Additionally, this measure allows utilities, including public utilities, upon the State's certification of available funds, to be able to deposit funds for utility work in highway projects at a later date, thereby freeing up utility funds for other much-needed projects.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water, Land, and Housing and Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1326, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1326, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water, Land, and Housing and Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs,

 

____________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair

 

____________________________

DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair